关于时间

这是一则难产的书评。

辗转四个小时，我一直在翻来覆去的阅读杰弗里·兰德斯的短篇科幻小说Ripples in the dirac sea。是的，翻来覆去，这个词是实景描述而非表意。

两条线穿梭在一起的硬核科幻小说里，关于时间的理性演绎和感性领悟交织如浑然一体。第一条线以跳跃的方式讲述当下世界里的一位科学家关于时间机器的伟大发现，以及伴随着为宣讲新发现而陷入的死亡火灾和逃生尝试，第二条线以借由时间机器穿回历史的方式讲述「我」尝试逃离死亡的各种努力过程中的遭遇，其中一种穿越遇到了看透时间迷局的朋克青年唐瑟。

以上面这种干瘪的语言来介绍这篇小说让人感觉无比沮丧。到底是什么打动了我呢？

其实时间旅行的创意和原理无足轻重。那些都是众所周知的东西。不同的地方是这里有唐瑟的故事。

To San Francisco, June 8, 1965. A warm breeze riffles across dandelion-speckled grass, while puffy white clouds form strange and wondrous shapes for our entertainment. Yet so very few people pause to enjoy it. They scurry about, diligently preoccupied, believing that if they act busy enough, they must be important. "They hurry so," I say. "Why can't they slow down, sit back, enjoy the day?"

这个故事的开头是如此的美妙，以至于在读到它之后的无数个清晨、正午、黄昏和深夜，我都曾停下自己手头的事情，来问自己同样的问题：They hurry so, why can't they slow down, sit back, enjoy the day?

"They're trapped in the illusion of time," says Dancer. He lies on his back and blows a soap bubble, his hair flopping back long and brown in a time when "long" hair meant anything below the ear. A puff of breeze takes the bubble down the hill and into the stream of pedestrians. They uniformly ignore it. "They're caught in the belief that what they do is important to some future goal." The bubble pops against a briefcase, and Dancer blows another. "You and I, we know how false an illusion that is. There is no past, no future, only the now, eternal."

是的，there is no past, no future, only the now, eternal. 人们都活在时间的幻象里。时间的幻象如同信口吹出的肥皂泡。当肥皂泡破灭的时候，什么会留下？Only the now, eternal.

YOU ORDINARY PEOPLE,you have the chance to change the future. You can father children, write novels, sign petitions, invent new machines, go to cocktail parties, run for president. You affect the future with everything you do. No matter what I do, I cannot. It is too late for that, for me. My actions are written in flowing water. And having no effect, I have no responsibilities. It makes no difference what I do, not at all.

这是困在火海里的时间之囚带着羡慕和嫉妒的控诉。换一个角度来看，其实不存在所谓的火海，也没有什么时间之囚。拥有无限可能的、长生不死的、终将无法逃离火灾的科学家，可以做任何事情，却也什么都做不了。这个世界里，最伟大的事实是：You affect the future with everything you do. 换言之，萨特是对的：人是自己行动的结果，除此之外，他什么都不是。

Dancer, too, will never die. I won't let him. Every time I get to that final February morning, the day he died, I return to 1965, to that perfect day in June. He doesn't know me, he never knows me. But we meet on that hill, the only two willing to enjoy the day doing nothing. He lies on his back, idly fingering chords on his guitar, blowing bubbles and staring into the clouded blue sky. Later I will introduce him to Lisa. She won't know us either, but that's okay. We've got plenty of time. "Time," I say to Dancer, lying in the park on the hill. "There's so much time." "All the time there is," he says.

唐瑟永生不朽。不带死亡的永生不朽毫无意义，只有死才会赋予生最充盈的价值。唐瑟的永生和不朽来自于此在的永恒。是的，此在才是永恒。There's so much time. Yes, all the time there is.

最后，我跳出了这篇小说，以阅读另外两篇小说的方式：洛萨的《河的第三条岸》，和博尔赫斯的《小径分叉的花园》。